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The Influence Of Entrepreneurs' Social Relation On Manufacturing Firm's Innovation And Performance

Posted on:2006-10-14Degree:DoctorType:Dissertation
Country:ChinaCandidate:Y R CengFull Text:PDF
GTID:1119360155971004Subject:Industrial Economics
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The dissertation examines business networks among manufacturing firms in Pearl River Delta, Guangdong, China. It assesses their influences on innovation and the process of industrial development. Network relations and the social orientations of manufacturers in the area were explored by using in-depth interviews with either enterprise owners or business managers. They focused on issues of trust and the means through which these individuals use business relations in their production activities. In the data analysis phase, manufacturers were divided into three groups—minimalists, pragmatists and maximalists, based on a businessperson's social orientation and correlations between social variables and the levels of innovation and performance that were computed.The analysis leads to a number of noteworthy findings. First, networks best facilitate innovation when they are structurally dense and spatially extended and, when those participants such as entrepreneurs (agents) are willing to create strong bonds in their local communities and to extend social connections to other communities and regions. Second, individual's social orientation and ability to trust is an important factor that contributes directly to innovations (especially dependent innovations) of the firm. Third, scholar can better understand the process of innovation and industrial development by embedding the economic activities of firms in the social contexts available to the individuals managing them.The study more generally improves our understanding of the process driving businesspeople to interact socially. An institutional framework is applied to deconstructs the dynamics behind the network construction, maintenance, and modification. The institutional framework demonstrates that there are competing and overlapping "logics" behind or reasons for inter-firm relations. This approach also contributes to our understanding of social capital by identifying both the patterns of behavior reflecting its presence and the process leading to its creation.If the purpose is to improve the local businessmen's successes and the localized manufacturing capabilities, policymakers have to foster a trust, in a broader sense. Moreover, it has to strengthen the reform of legal system, especially the execution system, and local municipal governments and to encourage communications between governments and companies. Once the trust level and the society's reliability are improved, it is probably true that entrepreneurs would be more willing to take some risk-taking actions, for example, innovations. Such innovation initiatives and spirit may result in embedding China's industrial development in healthier and endogenously created institutions.
Keywords/Search Tags:network, embeddedness, trust, innovation
PDF Full Text Request
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